Marietta College Special Collections Catherine Fay Ewing

By Jann Adams

With the passionate determination of Catherine Fay Ewing to care for destitute orphans in the mid 1800s, Washington County Children’s Home was established in 1867 as the first public children’s home in the country supported by tax money. All ended well, but, for Catherine, the journey was fraught with obstacles.

After Catherine attended the Marietta Female Seminary to be a teacher, she embarked to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma as a missionary with the Choctaws. While there, a local physician asked Catherine to adopt a two-year-old orphan girl. Unfortunately, a married couple took the child and shortly thereafter, a drunken fight led to the child’s death. Catherine could not remove this tragedy from her mind and determined that some day she would have a home to care for orphans.

Returning to Marietta, Catherine was appalled by the poor conditions of orphans in the county infirmary where they were housed with adults of diminished mental capacity and drunkenness. At this time she decided to fulfill her mission to open a home for neglected children. The infirmary finally agreed to contribute funds and allow the release of the children. In 1857, with nine children gathered, she purchased twelve acres with a two-room cottage at Moss Run in Lawrence Township, ten miles from Marietta. When attempting to place the children in school, she immediately encountered an obstacle. Sixteen men barred their entry by saying they did not want the “paupers” in school. Fay boldly responded, “I am not afraid of you; I know I am right, and you are wrong.” She petitioned the Washington County Court and won legal guardianship of the children and the right to send them to school.

By late summer, a twenty-room “home building” was completed with an inheritance from a relative. But still there were obstacles from people who did not approve of her mission. Fay reported, “Many of my neighbors had strange ideas of my work. They thought it a mere moneymaking scheme, and an injury to them, as they paid taxes to the State, and they tried to injure me. At night they opened my gates and let in hogs and cattle upon my garden and fields, and killed my chickens. Once when I went to take one of my children to a home I found on my return fifty-two of my sixty chickens dead.” Fay found her strength with a strong faith in God and kept to her motto, “Never let up.”

During the ten years that she had the farm, one hundred and one children were cared for and many found new homes. Catherine painstakingly addressed county commissioners and Ohio legislators in Columbus to secure funds for the orphans. Her effort failed for a couple of years, but in 1866 the Ohio legislature passed a law to provide support for orphans.

In 1867, Washington County commissioners purchased a 100-acre farm for $18,000 just outside of Marietta (342 Muskingum Drive). The position of superintendent was offered to Mrs. Ewing, but a man other than her husband, Archibald Ewing, was hired to manage the farm. Her reply was simply: “When you leave my husband out, you leave me out.” On the 1st Day of April 1868, Catherine Fay Ewing outfitted all her children with clothing and bedding and the thirty-six children arrived at the new home. The Washington County Children’s Home was the first government-funded home in the country and served children until 1976.

Jann K. Adams is a WCHS member. To learn more about Washington County Historical Society services and membership call 740.373.1788 or visit wchshistory.org.